On November 10, Gaza militants fired an anti-tank missile at an IDF patrol on the Israeli side of the Gaza-Israel border, injuring four. Israel responded with deadly airstrikes on Gaza, Hamas and other militant factions in Gaza fired rockets back. After a cease fire was negotiated and rocket fire from Gaza had almost stopped, IDF drones assassinated Hamas military chief, Ahmad al-Jabari. Gaza militants responded by launching a barrage of rockets. One of those rockets exploded in a home in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi, killing three members of a family. IDF attacks on Gaza have resulted in the death of at least 13 people, some of them civilians, and injured over 100 people.

Israelis living under constant rocket fire in southern Israel shared their experiences and feelings online.

Hagit Eisha, a resident of the southern city Beer Sheva posted this on Facebook:

On the way to my parents to pick up my daughter. Four missiles above me and in front of me, alarm, flashes of light, smoke trails. I'm so horribly scared. I scream to my father on the phone that I'm dead, and he's certain he's talking to a 12-year-old. He calms me down saying that he's waiting for me outside and that the IDF is protecting me and I scream. There have been several alarms since then and my body is still shaking. I wanted them to put an end to this [rocket fire] but war is scary.

In our family, everyone is grown up, the youngest is 15. The whole thing of alarms and missiles doesn't bother us anymore. An alarm means that you count until 15 and hope for the best. On Saturday night, I was at a good friend's house when the ‘Red Color‘ [radar system] alert went off. During the alert, they went into the bomb shelter. I'm used to not looking for it anymore, but I went in with them. I saw her little brother hugging his mother in fear, and for a moment I thought to myself why he's so afraid, and why he hasn't gotten used to it by now.
And a second later I understood that the real absurdity is not that he's afraid, but that I've gotten used to it.

MK Ilan Gil'on, a member of the dovish Meretz party who lives in Ashdod, posted this image on Facebook, writing: “Going down to the shelter with my granddaughter Noya”

At least five hits without the alarm being sounded, explosions all over, Ashdod feels like a war zone. Operation Cast Lead feels like a walk in the park compared to this.
A 3-year-old, curly hair, pink cheeks, chubby, went out to the stairwell with a pink dotted umbrella. My mother asked her why. She said that it will protect us. Hidden innocence.

This video documenting multiple rockets being fired at Beer Sheva was posted on November 14 on Facebook, and received over 4,700 shares

While many Israelis, including those who are currently tweeting from their bomb shelters, expressed their complete support for the IDF, other were more critical of the government.

Shirly Karavani, a resident of the southern city of Ashqelon wrote this widely-shared Facebook update:

Hello, I'm a resident of the south, and despite what many smart-asses are saying in the media, I am completely unprepared for this! And so are most who live around me, by the way, especially those who live in older neighborhoods and are not protected at all because they couldn't afford to build a bomb shelter that costs NIS 70,000. So please stop making us into your ‘national strength’. All I want to do it live in peace and raise my daughter. I am certain that there are thousands of mothers like me on both sides of the [Gaza-Israel] fence, hundreds of thousands even. We are victims of leaders who do not attempt to find a real solution and care only about staying in power.

I don't remember any morning like this [with so many explosions]. Mortars and Qassams keep landing, one of them close to the clinic…
I wish some of them could be aimed to Gaza street [the official residence of the Prime Minister in Jerusalem] and Barak's new tower [Barak infamously bought an expensive condo in a high-tower in Tel Aviv, and due to public anger, sold it and bought an apartment in a less-expensive high tower]…

A message from Michal Vesser, a teacher and resident of Kfar ‘Aza, near the border, was posted by her student on Facebook:

Don't protect me!
Thank you very much, really. With such defense, who needs offense… I sit in my bomb shelter at the Kfar ‘Aza kibbutz and listen to the bombardment in this all-out war.
…
If you want to protect me – please don't send the IDF to “win”. Start thinking long-term and not just until the coming elections. Try to negotiate, extend your hand to Mahmoud Abbas. Stop the ‘targeted killings’, look into the eyes of the civilians on the other side. I know that most of the public will accuse me of being a bleeding heart. But I'm the one sitting here right now as mortars land in my yard, not Saar [Minister of Education], not Bibi, not Shelly [Yechimovitch, head of the Labor party who expressed her full support for the ongoing IDF operation], not Yair [Lapid, a TV personality-turned-politician who had also expressed support for the government's handling of the crisis]. I am the one who chose to raise her children here
…
So do me a favor and don't kill civilians on the other side of the fence to protect my life. If you want to see an end to the attacks from the other side, open your ears and start to listen.
Violent conflicts are not solved with additional violence.
Quiet is not achieved by oppressing the other. The opposite is true – it is a recipe for the continuation of the circle of horror.

Many left-leaning Israelis pointed to the connection between the escalating violence and the upcoming elections, set for January 22, 2013. Israeli governments have a record of launching military operations ahead of elections.

Current polls show that the party of the Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, does not cross the election threshold (2% of the votes). Blue Collar, a leftist social media firm posted this image commenting on Barak's interest in escalating the conflict with the Palestinians prior to the elections

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[…] new for many families in southern Israel, where bomb shelters are a feature of everyday life. Here, translated by Global Voices’ Elizabeth Tsurkov, is one young Israeli man’s realization that the cycle of attack, alert and hiding has become […]